Jakob the Liar

Robin Williams plays Jakob, a Jew living in one of the ghettos in Poland, under Nazi occupation. He gets caught out after curfew, and while waiting in the local Gestapo asshole's office, overhears a radio broadcast that says the Soviets aren't that far off. He relays this message to one person, trying to get something from them, and everyone concludes he must have a radio somewhere, against the Nazis rules. Because no one will believe he was caught out after curfew and wasn't killed.

A lot of the movie is about the value of hope weighed against the risks. Many of Jakob's neighbors want the latest news, which Jakob eventually starts making up for them. But other people want to destroy his radio and get him to be quiet. If word gets to the Nazis, they'll turn the place upside-down, execute people, or ship them off to death camps. Existence in the ghettos is pretty terrible, but it's still existence. That's better than death, goes the thinking. Which I can see the argument for, especially if you have loved ones you're concerned about. Alan Arkin plays a former actor who seems to be the real driver of trying to get Jakob to keep quiet, and he's got a daughter he's worried about, among others.

Williams tones himself most of the way down, other than one scene where he pretends to have a radio for the young girl he's reluctantly taken it. Jakob still makes his share of biting, sarcastic remarks and comebacks, but most of them are whispered, muttered, or hissed. He didn't ask for any of this, he's already trying to hide Lina (played by Hannah Tyler Gordon) who escaped from one of the trains to the concentration camps and ran into him as he tried to get home after the whole curfew thing. He really doesn't need rumors of him having a contraband radio giving the Nazis another reason to come knocking.

But the lies he makes up seem to help people, so he keeps at it. Maybe as much from guilt as anything else. Once he started lying, he was too far in to get out. He can't tell them everything except the first story was made-up, even if for no other reason than he can't really afford to have everyone else hating his guts.